Learn how to take control of your applications and windows in macOS Sierra including: desktop and application navigation, how to create spaces to make more room for you work, finding your way around Mission Control, and working with applications in Launchpad.

This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

In this chapter, you learn how to take control of your applications and windows, including:

Finding your way around Mission Control

Managing applications and windows

Creating new spaces

Launching applications with Launchpad

Creating application groups in Launchpad

Uninstalling applications through Launchpad

Managing auto open and save features

As applications become more complex, so does the task of managing them. Software is installed everywhere, windows are spread out over your desktop, and just trying to find your way through the maze of information overload can be nightmarish. Sierra attempts to bring the madness under control by way of Mission Control.

Mission Control, combined with features such as Spaces, Launchpad, fullscreen apps, auto application, and window restoration, makes it easy to navigate the most cluttered computer. The biggest problem? Many of these features are hidden until you invoke them. In this chapter, you learn how to do just that!

Maintaining Order of Application Windows with Mission Control

One of the big benefits of modern operating systems is that they enable you to run multiple applications at once. Unfortunately, no matter how much screen space we have, we always need more! To help manage the ever-expanding collection of windows that you need to work within, Apple provides Mission Control as part of macOS. Mission Control helps you view your running apps, see the windows they have open, and even expand the amount of desktop real estate you have available.

As you’re about to see, in Mission Control terms, a “space” is a single screenful of information. It can be your typical desktop, a full-screen app, or even additional desktop views that you create.

Open and Close Mission Control

To manage Mission Control and access its features, follow these instructions:

Slide three fingers up your trackpad, double-tap two fingers on the Magic Mouse, or press the Mission Control key (F3) on your keyboard. Mission Control opens. Spaces appear on the top; the current space is in the center of the screen.

Slide three fingers down on the trackpad, double-tap two fingers on the mouse, or press the Mission Control key again. Mission Control closes.

If you prefer to start Mission Control by clicking, you can use the Mission Control icon. It’s in the Dock on machines without a multitouch trackpad—but you can add it from the Applications folder on any Mac.

Navigating Applications and Windows

When you start Mission Control, your current space (probably your desktop, if you’re starting Mission Control for the first time) is front and center, along with representations of each app running in the space and its windows.

To switch between applications and their windows, do the following:

Start Mission Control.

Click a window to exit Mission Control and bring the chosen window to the front.

In previous versions of macOS, Mission Control grouped application windows by application. This is turned off, by default, in El Capitan and Sierra. If you want to re-enable this feature, skip ahead to the section “Configure Mission Control Features and Shortcuts” later in this chapter.

Create and Populate a New Space

Modern applications look like the cockpit controls of advanced aircraft; it can be overwhelming finding your way around a single application—let alone 10. With Mission Control, you can create new desktop spaces dedicated to whatever applications you’d like. To do so, start Mission Control and follow these steps:

Move your mouse to the upper-right corner. The top of the screen expands to show thumbnails of your spaces, and a + button appears as your mouse approaches the corner. Click it.

To set a desktop picture in the Finder, right-click on the Desktop and choose Change Desktop Background. Each space can even have a separate desktop, making it easy to tell them apart.

Even Faster Space Switching

The fastest way to switch between Mission Control spaces is without even starting Mission Control. Swipe left or right with three fingers on your trackpad (or two fingers on the Magic Mouse) at any time to move between spaces.

Close a Space

It’s so easy to create spaces, you might find yourself with some extra ones you need to get rid of. To close out a space, follow these steps:

Start Mission Control.

Position your cursor over a space at the top of the screen.

An X appears in the upper-left corner of the space thumbnail. Click the X to close the space. Any windows within it move back to the primary desktop space.

Create Fullscreen Application Spaces

Spaces are great for providing more, um, space for your windowed applications, but they also serve as a “container” for your fullscreen apps. Rather than a fullscreen application eating up one of your desktop spaces, it automatically creates a new dedicated space when it starts and removes it when it stops.

Click the green double-arrow button in the upper-left corner of an application window to enter fullscreen mode.

Switch to and from the space exactly as you would any other. When you’re done using the fullscreen app, either quit the application or exit fullscreen mode by pressing the Escape key or moving your cursor to the top left of the screen and clicking the green button again. The space is automatically removed from Mission Control.

Switch to and from the split-screen space exactly as you would any other. When you’re done using either app, quit the application or exit splitscreen mode by pressing the Escape key or by moving your cursor to the top left of the screen and clicking the green button again. The space is automatically removed from Mission Control once both apps have exited.

>>>Go Further: Quickly Add Windows to a Space or Create New Application Spaces

If you’re working with an app and you want to quickly add its window to another space (or turn it into its own fullscreen space), drag the window up “past” the top of the menu bar. Mission control automatically launches and allows you to drag the window into an existing space, on top of an existing fullscreen space, to create a split-screen space, or to the right of any existing spaces to create a new space.

Choose Between Application Windows

When you just need to navigate your windows, the Mission Control Application windows option comes in handy. Using this, you can show all your application windows, or just the windows for a specific program, with a single click.

To display all the windows open within an application, click and hold an active application’s icon in the dock and choose Show All Windows. Alternatively, press Control+down arrow.

To quickly drop a file from the Finder into another application (such as an attachment into an email message), start dragging a file while the desktop is cleared, press F11 to return the windows to the screen, and then finish dragging and dropping the file into an application.

Configure Mission Control Features and Shortcuts

If you have a specific way of working and want to customize how Mission Control or any of its features is activated, just follow these steps:

Open the System Preferences application, and click the Mission Control panel icon.

Uncheck Automatically Rearrange Spaces Based on Most Recent Use if you prefer that Sierra keeps your spaces in the same order you add them, regardless of your usage patterns.

In most cases, leave When Switching to an Application, Switch to a Space with Open Windows for the Application check box checked. This indicates that when you switch to an application (using the Dock or Command+Tab), you automatically switch to the space that contains its open windows.

If you prefer application windows to be grouped under their application icon in the Mission Control display, check Group Windows by Application.

If you’re lucky enough to have multiple monitors connected to your Mac, check Displays Have Separate Spaces to have each display act as a separate work area with its own collection of fullscreen apps and workspaces. To use the monitors as a single unified space, uncheck this option.

In step 6 of the previous task, I mentioned a feature called Dashboard. Dashboard is a legacy feature that defaults to “off” on new systems. It provides widgets very similar to the Today view in the Notification center. You can enable it (and use it) by following the preceding steps, but be aware that it will likely be disappearing in future versions of macOS.

Remember Your Gestures!

As you know, you control Mission Control through gestures, and these aren’t set in stone! Use the trackpad or Mouse System Preferences panels to configure the gestures used by Mission Control.